#and stewy sees through that of course. again the . it doesn’t mean anything. that doesn’t even mean anything. there’s a human thing standing | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

outsideratheart · 3 years

Text

When in New York (Kelley O’ Hara x reader)

Part 2

You had just finished post game media following your game against New York Liberty. You weren’t a huge fan of doing media but it made it easier considering Seattle had won.

You leave the conference room with Stewie who you had been doing the interview with.

“You seeing your family tonight” You shake your head.

“What about you?” She nods hers.

She bumps her shoulder into yours “Two New Yorkers beat New York in New York. Sounds like something to celebrate to me” She says and maybe she had a point.

You both walk into the locker room, some players have already left and some were still packing up.

“Y/N? Megan texted saying that her and a couple other teammates are at your parents restaurant and asked if we wanted to meet up with them” Sue asks.

Very few people knew about the family restaurant, you wanted to keep it a secret so that it could stay authentic. Your family was Italian and the restaurant was like a little piece of Italy in New York. The only people that knew where your Storm teammates and Megan, the honorary team mom.

You look at sue and she is giving you the look. After signing for the team she had taken you under her wing meaning that the two of you had got quite close.

“Ok, ok. No need to give me that look” You says.

After a quick shower and a change of clothes you leave the area, luckily for you the restaurant is only a few blocks away so you and Sue opted to walk saying that I would be your cool down / recovery.

“You said teammates” you says putting air-quotes around the word teammates “who’s there?” You ask.

“Alex and Kelley” she says which instantly bring a smile to your face.

“I thought that would cheer you up”

“Shut up”

You had a crush on Kelley, both Sue and Megan knew it. You met her last year when to US were playing in Seattle and Megan had invited you to a game. There was something about the defender that you really liked. You wasn’t if it was the fact that on the pitch she is a beast and off she is teddy but always had fun when you were with her.

You both enter the restaurant being greeted by your mom as soon as you come through the door.

“Mrs L/N nice to see you again” Sue says.

“Sue I have told you before, you can call me Maria” You mom says as she hugs you and sue makes her way to your friends.

“buon gioco dolce ragazza” (good game sweet girl) she tells you.

“grazie mamma” you reply kissing her cheek.

Meanwhile sue heads towards to table of soccer players.

She waves at everyone getting a mixture of hi’s and hello’s

“Hi babe” She says kissing her girlfriend on the cheek.

“Hi” Megan replies. “Where Y/N?” She asks noticing that you wasn’t behind sue.

“She’s in here somewhere” Sue says. She knew that you would probably been saying hi to your dad in the kitchen but she couldn’t tell them that.

“See Kel, you have a few more moments to get your crush in check” Alex jokes with her friend.

“Shut up!” Kelley replies.

“Hi guys” you say as to approach the table.

You notice Kelley staring at you so you take the opportunity to tease her.

“Like what you see?” You say making the defender blush.

“Have you ordered food yet?” You ask.

“No we were waiting for you. We know we are having though” Alex tells you as she hands you a menu.

“Thanks but I don’t need it” You say handing the menu to Sue who shakes her head letting you know she doesn’t need it either.

“You already know what you’re having?” Kelley asks.

“Not exactly” Sue says which confuses the others.

Looking around the restaurant you catch the attention of one of the waiters.

You let him know you are ready to order.

Each of the women tell him what they want and then it is your’s and sue’s turn.

You look at sue and she nods her head.

“dì a gianni che avremo quello che consiglia” (tell gianni we will have what he recommends) Sue says

“Certo” The waiter says.

You look at Sue and smile in approval.

“You getting very good, maybe time for a trip” You say.

“You speak Italian?” Kelley asks Sue.

“Y/N does and she has been teaching me for the past couple of years”

“Who is Gianni?” Alex asks.

“He is the chef here” You explain.

You start talking about the storm game when you mom bring across a bottle of limoncello hand you the bottle and 5 shot glasses.

“Grazie” You say

You pour everyone a glass and hand them out.

“You get table service here?” Kelley asks.

“No, I asked for it when I came in” You reply.

You raise you class and everyone copies.

“Here to us. We change the game and provide hope for the next generation of female athletes” You say and everyone takes a sip except Kelley who shots it.

“You sip it Kel. If not you’ll be on the floor an hour” Megan says.

“You would know” you tease causing you and the forward to laugh.

“I will pour you another but this here” you say pointing to the bottle “is the real stuff, not something you find in a liquor store. It comes straight from a vineyard in Italy where this restaurant makes it’s wine”

“You know a lot about this restaurant, the chef’s name and now where it makes it’d alcohol” Alex questions.

“What can I say, I have been coming here since I was a baby” you explain.

“that’s one way to put it” sue says under her breath, no quiet enough though as you send her a glare.

You look at Kelley as she takes a sip.

“Tastes better doesn’t it” She nods her head.

Your food arrives and you all say how nice it looks and smells.

“Oh.my.god” Kelley says between mouthfuls.

“I agree, this is incredible. Megan how did you find this place? Alex asks.

“Y/N” Megan replies and Alex nods remembering that you said you came here when I was younger.

Conversation is small and simple as you all focus on your food.

You thank the waiter telling him the the food was delicious as he clears the table.

“Y/N can I ask you a question” Kelley asks.

“Only if I can ask you one?”

“Why Italian and are you fluent” She asks

“I’m Italian so I had to learn in order to talk to family in Sicily”

“Prove it. Tell me something in Italian?”

“quando ci siamo conosciuti pensavo fossi la persona più bella del mondo”

“Sounds very romantic” Alex says.

“What does it mean?” Kelley asks.

“it means ‘when we met I thought you were the most beautiful person in the world’” You tell her making sure to look her in the eyes when you say it.

Kelley is at a loss for words, what is she suppose to say to that.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable” You say slowly regretting what you said, not that you didn’t mean because you did.

“I’ll go get us some more drinks” you says excusing yourself from the table.

“Kelley” Alex says trying to get her friends attention.

“Does she say that kind of thing to everyone?” Kelley asks sue.

She shakes her head “She isn’t that type of person Kelley”

“You should tell her how you feel” Megan suggests.

Kelley shakes her head “what if she doesn’t feel the same way”

“You honestly think that after hearing what she just said” Alex says not believing her friends blindness.

You walk back to the table with two bottles of red wine.

“Dessert wine anyone?” You say trying to avoid the awkwardness. “trust me, this will be the best you tasted”

“It’s what they make in Italy right?” Alex says, you nod pouring her a glass.

Out of all the woman at the table to knew that Alex was the one that drank wine. You wait eagerly to see If she likes it.

“Nice right”

Alex nods her head.

You all sip on your wine talking about everything and anything, for a moment you forget that you are all major athletes and it just feels like a group of friends catching up.

Once you are done Alex gets the attention of the waiter for the bill but he tells them that it has been settled.

She looks around the table confused but notices that Megan and Sue and looking directly at you.

“Y/N”

“What? We don’t do this very often. Let me treat my friends”

“Thank you” Alex and Kelley say at the same time.

You are just about to leave when your mom comes to the table.

“Did you all enjoy your meal?” She asks.

“It was incredible, I cannot wait to come back” Kelley says.

“I agree, I will definitely come back whenever we are in New York” Alex says.

“I’ll see you two soon ok” she says putting an arm around Sue and Megan. She had met them numerous times when she came to Seattle but her comment stumped the other two.

“Of course, next time your in Seattle you have to show me how to make your lasagne, I always eat the ones you make Y/N” Megan looks at you when you realises what she said.

It looks like your secret was about to get two new keepers.

“Alex, Kelley” your mom says now directed her attention to the other two soccer players “Any friends of my daughters are always welcome here”

“Wait, your daughter?” Kelley says looking at you confused.

“Meet my mom Maria” you say.

“This makes more sense. It is why you know so much about this restaurant” Alex says.

You nod your head.

You all make sure your way our of the restaurant. You had learned that Megan, Alex and Kelley were all staying in the same hotel as you and sue so you walked back together. Sue, Megan and Alex walk ahead leaving you and Kelley alone.

“I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable earlier, it’s just that whenever I am near you I feel this connection and thought maybe you felt it too. I wouldn’t have said what I said if I didn't” you say

“I wasn’t uncomfortable, you caught me of guard. Nobody has every said something like that to me, definitely not in Italian” Kelley explains.

“I find that hard to believe, I mean look at you, you are beautiful” You say.

Kelley blushes again which you find adorable “ You were right before. I feel the connection too but I never did anything about it because we live so far away from each other”

“Can’t we just let ourself be happy even it it’s only a short period of time. We focus so much on the bigger picture that we don’t see what is right in front of us” You tell her.

“What do you have in mind?” She asks and you smile, you had wanted to do this for a quite a while.

“When do you leave New York?”

“Not until the day after tomorrow”

“Perfect! Have breakfast with me?”

“I would love to” she replies.

Kelley stops walking “for the record, I find you very beautiful too”

You smile holding you hand out and she takes it.

You walk back to the hotel hand in hand, not talking just making the most of each others company whilst you can.

#uswnt x reader #uswnt one shot #uswnt imagine #kelley o'hara #kelley o’hara x reader #kelley o’hara imagine #kelley o’hara one shot

306 notes · View notes

gch1995 · 3 years

Text

I’m 25 going on 26 now, and I grew up loving the classic Powerpuff Girls cartoon series when I was a kid. Even now when I rewatch it as an adult, it’s still a cute and funny cartoon, especially now that I’m old enough to recognize all of the adult jokes. Like, there’s no way it was a coincidence that Professor Utonium’s despicably dishonest, greedy, lazy, manipulative, selfish, and sleazy former roommate from college was given the name Professor Dick Hardly by accident.

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup actually are pretty relatable little girls who have believable flaws and insecurities. They make believable bad choices for little girls. Those issues actually get dealt with seriously, rather than just being brushed aside as no big deal with no negative consequences. They are still endearing and sympathetic in spite of their flaws.

While he had a few OOC moments of bad parenting in some bad episodes here and there, generally speaking, Professor Utonium from the classic Powerpuff Girls is actually one of the best dads in cartoons that I’ve ever seen, which is sadly pretty rare in most cartoon sitcoms, even the ones that are actually aimed at a children audience.

Most cartoon dads are abusive, lazy, neglectful, selfish, and stupid oafs. Granted, those type of dads in cartoon sitcoms can actually be entertaining and funny to watch when they are actually being well-written as shitty and slow-witted, but still essentially well-meaning people in regards to their families, such as S1-S8 Homer Simpson from The Simpsons and even S1-S3 Peter Griffin from Family Guy. However, the entertainment quality of those shitty, but well-meaning cartoon dads was mostly lost when the writers flanderdized their negative traits to the point of making Homer and especially Peter downright despicable with little to no redeeming or sympathetic qualities much of the time anymore. They went from being shitty, but essentially well-meaning parents and husbands to downright bratty and spoiled man-children who were much more intentionally abusive, childish, cruel, neglectful, petty, and selfish in regards to their families and others around them with little to no sympathetic or redeeming qualities much of the time anymore, and that’s one of the biggest reasons why The Simpsons went downhill in quality after S8, and why Family Guy went downhill in quality after S3.

Nonetheless, even as they were originally written on their shows pre-flanderdization when they were still well-meaning, but misguided parents and spouses, cartoon dads like Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin, weren’t good dads on the whole. There were still plenty of recurring plot lines and/or gags of them being abusive, lazy, neglectful, reckless, and selfish. Back in early seasons pre-flanderdization, it was more forgivable, though, because they also still had their fair share of kind and selfless moments with their families, and their shittiness as parents wasn’t intentionally abusive, malicious, premeditated, and selfish in nature, which balanced them out enough to still be entertaining and likable characters in spite of their flaws.

Realistically speaking, though, dads like Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson would be better off having their kids taken away from them by CPS. Their good qualities and lack of malicious intent, particularly in earlier seasons pre-flanderdization, would still not hold up as legitimate excuse as to why they should be allowed to keep their kids. Bart would have bruises all over his neck, fractures in his neck, and he could possibly be killed if Homer strangled him hard enough to actually break his neck and/or cut off his air supply long enough in real life just once. Meg, Chris, and even Stewie would not only be injured, but actually outright killed in real life from some of the abuse and neglect that Peter and Lois put them through in later seasons of FG. All of these kids, especially Meg, would have serious self-esteem issues for the rest of their lives because Peter, Lois’, and Homer’s abuse and neglect of their kids went beyond just a pattern of being physical in nature, but emotionally and verbally abusive as well.

So yeah, Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson are really not good fathers who you’d ever want to deal with for a parent in real life, even pre-flanderdization. The major reoccurrence of the abusive, bumbling, idiotic, lazy, drunken, neglectful, and selfish dad trope in cartoon sitcoms is exactly why I really love Professor Utonium from the classic PPG cartoon. I don’t necessarily mind it in absurdist cartoon sitcoms when it’s done well as a trope, but I’m also getting tired of mostly just seeing bad and stupid dads in cartoon sitcoms, and not enough good ones.

For the most part, the OG Professor Utonium is a great dad who goes above and beyond to make sure Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup are happy, healthy, disciplined, and safe. He’s usually the parent most of us wish we could have in real life, if we don’t already. It’s refreshing to actually see a good dad in an animated sitcom for once.

Professor Utonium in the classic PPG cartoon is generally a very kind, loving, selfless, and supportive dad to girls. However, he also knows when he has to discipline them and be strict without ever being mean about it. He gives them good advice. He’s very selfless, and even though the girls are superheroes with superhuman abilities, he’ll still risk and/or sacrifice anything to protect them when they’re unable to protect themselves with their powers, including his own life. He didn’t need to be the stereotypical cartoon sitcom abusive, bumbling, dumb, and neglectful dad in order to be funny either. He was funny because he could sometimes be overprotective of the girls, and he could sometimes embarrass them by calling them sickly sweet terms of endearment and telling embarrassing stories that he shouldn’t have about them in public. He was socially awkward. These are relatable flaws in parents that even the best ones have.

While the girls don’t have a mother, Ms. Bellum and Ms. Keane were very brave, kind, and intelligent strong women who were good role models.

Also, the Professor did many activities with the girls and chores around the house that get gender-coded as “mother’s work.” Some of these things include begrudgingly playing dress up as Bubbles to make her happy when she was playing PowerPuff Girls with Buttercup and Blossom on a rainy day inside of no crime when he saw that she was upset that no one wanted to be her, cooking, cleaning, and actually sitting down to talk with the girls, listen to them, emotionally support them, and give them advice. He’s also not afraid to be openly affectionate, doting, and emotional with the girls. There’s just not enough good dads in cartoon sitcoms, which is why I really like Professor Utonium from the OG PowerPuff Girls cartoon and movie. He mostly defied all the bad dad stereotypes, and was a really great one to the girls more often than not.

The main villains from the classic PowerPuff Girls cartoon are incredibly entertaining, especially MoJo JoJo. Him was always the creepiest to me because he was the most devious, insidious, and manipulative one. All of the psychological abuse and manipulation he put the girls and Townsville through was always the scariest to me when I was a kid because out of all the villains on the show, the torment that he wreaked upon the girls and Townsville by brainwashing them, gaslighting them, and/or exploiting their fears and insecurities often was played as dead serious with really scary results, especially in early seasons of classic PPG. While Him had a few human moments here and there, for the most part, he was pretty consistently played off as being seriously scary and dangerous.

MoJo JoJo was an egomaniacal asshole hellbent on destroying the PowerPuff Girls and world domination, and on a few occasions, he actually came close to succeeding. On a few occasions, he genuinely was more scary than camp evil. But he still had a lot of humorous, human, fallible, and relatable moments, too. My favorite MoJo moments are the ones where he is making jokes, irritably going grocery shopping to get eggs, getting too frustrated by the girls antics and childish behaviors and reactions to actually go through with his plans to destroy them at certain points, and getting angry and jealous enough to actually destroy the alien/robot invader from another planet who was destroying Townsville in all the evil ways that he always wanted to himself. He was highly intelligent at coming up with clever schemes and inventions with all his science and technology to take over the world, destroy Townsville, and/or destroy the PowerPuff Girls. However, his arrogance, impatience, and impulsivity always doomed him to fail to succeed in the end, though he did come pretty close on a few occasions, especially in the 2002 prequel origin story movie, and he did actually get to rule the world in “The PowerPuff Girls Rule the World!” Surprisingly, he actually was a kindhearted ruler who did good things, but then he gave it all up and went back to being evil because he got bored.

Originally, MoJo was a well-intentioned extremist who wanted to create a utopia ruled by primates where they would never be controlled or rejected by humans again. As much as Professor Utonium’s irritation with JoJo for being a destructive chimp lab assistant was completely justified, it’s also hard not to feel kind of sorry for Mojo Jojo and understand where he’s coming from in his motivations to become evil, particularly in the 2002 prequel movie because originally all he really wanted was to be loved by his owner, too. He understandably felt rejected when Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup became the center of his universe instead. Of course, that doesn’t excuse him for choosing to respond to the Professor’s rejection by becoming an arrogant, evil, cruel, hateful, hypocritical, domineering, manipulative, petty, selfish, and vengeful villain going on a quest for world domination, attempting to commit homicide several times, probably committing voluntary manslaughter of citizens several times that we didn’t see on screen when destroying Townsville all those times, turning the rest of the world into dogs to try to take over the world, and trying to destroy the girls. However, you understand why Mojo became the villain he did with his backstory. He’s relatable. Occasionally, he does have some genuinely sympathetic moments where he’s actually willing to be friendly with the girls, team up with them, and do the right thing.

HIM was just the personification of evil for no other reason than the fact that he was satan. While MoJo was a complex, human, and relatable anti-villain with his origin story as the Professor’s lab chimp, who gained genius-level human intellect from having Chemical X splashed on his brain, and then chose to become evil after feeling rejected by the Professor when he saw how he pretty much forget about him once the girls became the center of his universe instead, HIM was evil, manipulative, and hateful for no other reason than the fact that those traits were a part of his nature as the very embodiment of evil. Many times, a fictional villain being portrayed as one-dimensional with no sympathetic qualities or relatable motivations will annoy me, but with HIM being evil just because that’s who he is, it actually works because he is literally Satan. There doesn’t need to be a deeper sympathetic story behind why he is evil. Committing crimes, wreaking havoc, corrupting people, manipulating people, turning people against others, exploiting the fears of others, and deceiving others for his own amusement is just who he is, and in the early seasons of classic PPG in particular, that made him really scary to me when I was a six year old little girl watching the cartoon on TV.

You get the idea...The classic PowerPuff Girls was a fantastic cartoon, particularly the first four seasons. Granted, there was some series seasonal rot going on in the writing in S5 and S6 after the 2002 prequel movie, and Craig Mcracken and Gennedy Tartakovsky’s departure from the crew. Like, the characterizations of the characters and/or storylines in S5 and S6 felt comparably flanderdized, ooc, immature, inconsistent, pointless, shallow, and underwhelming at certain times to fit the plot, such as in the episodes “Keen on Keane,” “Pee Pee G’s,” “Seed No Evil,” “Reeking Havoc,” “Toast of the Town,” “Say Uncle,” “City of Clipsville,” “”Bubble Boy,” A Made Up Story,” “Mo’linguish,” and “Simian Says.” Even the good episodes of S5-S6 still didn’t ever reach the same level of greatness of the ones from S1-S4. However, the seasonal rot in the classic PPG cartoon of S5-S6 after Craig McCracken and Gennedy Tartakovsky’s departure still wasn’t nearly as bad as the seasonal rot on The Simpsons after S8, Family Guy after S3, and SpongeBob SquarePants post S3–S4 ish, so I’m still willing to consider most of S5-S6 of classic PPG legit canon.

However, it sounds like the 2016 PPG reboot fucked up everything that was originally good about it to go for a more slapstick comedic feel without substance without consistency, depth, and intelligence. Now, I hear that the CW is making a live-action TV show spin-off of the PowerPuff Girls being jaded and resentful young women who’ve given up crime fighting as result! No, no, no! Why? Why does the CW keep making dark, nitty, and gritty live action teen soap operas out of beloved childhood cartoons?

Yeah, the original PowerPuff Girls cartoon and movie had dark moments. The girls could be bratty and make bad choices sometimes. However, it was still very much a fun show about normal little girls born with superpowers, which they chose to use to defend their father, their city, and on some occasions, the whole world, from crime. No one ultimately forced them to be superheroes for everyone in the classic PPG cartoon and movie. They chose to do it because they had brave and selfless hearts. There was ultimately no obligation for them to be superheroes in the classic PPG cartoon and movie. Sure, they got tired of fighting crime at times, but they still ultimately enjoyed doing it when push came to shove. They weren’t weighed down by the darkness of the world, hatred, and resentment. They still were relatively normal little girls with happy, peaceful, and normal lives of little girls whenever they weren’t fighting crime after the events of the prequel movie about their origins. That’s what made the PowerPuff Girls classic cartoon so special.

By turning Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup into jaded young women, who have given up on being superheroes because they’ve grown resentful of “losing the normal childhood to crime fighting” that they basically are shown to have in the original series for the most part in their spare time aside from having superpowers that they chose to use to fight crime to defend their dad and Townsville from, anyway, where is the fun in that?

#ppg classic #ppg #PowerPuff girls classic was an amazing cartoon!#there was some seasonal rot bad writing in classic PPG after S4 and Craig McCracken and Gennedy Tartovsky’s departure from the show #also looking back at even some of the early seasons of classic PPG Buttercup tended to get treated as a butt-monkey in her few centric Ed #but the seasonal rot moments of bad writing in S5-S6 of classic PPG wasn’t THAT bad so for the most part I’m willing to give it a pass #mojo jojo #him #professor utonium #blossom utonium #bubbles utonium #buttercup utonium #sara bellum #mayor #ms. keane #anti the cw live action PowerPuff girls!#is nothing from the childhoods of those of us who grew up in the early to mid 2000s sacred anymore?#what’s next a CW live action spin off of SpongeBob Squarepants in which SpongeBob works as a drug dealer for mob boss Mr. Krabs?#a CW live action spin off of Johnny Bravo where fool JD is actually rewarded for hitting on women who are strangers?#a cw live action reboot of dexter’s laboratory in which dexter grows up to run a crystal meth lab?#a CW live action spin-off of Courage the Cowardly Dog in which Muriel is a terrible pet owner too?#a CW live action of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends in which Mac is diagnosed as a schizophrenic who hallucinated in the OG series?#omg! just let these beloved cartoons RIP please!#Come up with something new! Stop ruining good cartoons from the past by reviving them into something they were never meant to be!

173 notes · View notes

fortheboyzzz · 3 years

Text

Cory Danvers

Kara & Cory

Genre: Angst

Summary: This is just based off part of his backstory.

Trigger warning: Death and mentions of depression

Cory and Kara were at her apartment, eating pizza that he had picked up on his way from work.

“You know, I’m actually kinda thinking of dropping out school.” he said, casually through a bite of pizza.

Kara’s eyes widened and she sat up.

“I’m just not so sure about sociology anymore, but honestly it’s not that big of a deal, my boss loves so it won’t be hard convincing him to work fulltime. And don’t worry, I’ll give the money back to Mom-- Eliza, sorry.”

“No, you can call her that, it’s alright.”

"Really? I see the look on your face every time I do. it bothers you.”

“Okay, maybe a little bit, but I understand. Also I think you should give dropping out some more thought.”

Just then, both their ears caught the sound of danger.

she shot up and looked at him. “Don’t think we’re not coming back to this conversation.”

The two changed into their suits and rushed to the crime in action where a large alien was rampaging the streets.

They nodded at each other before both charging at it. The alien swung an arm and Cory ducked and Kara punched it in the face, causing it to stumble back. It shook its head then angered even more and it lunged at them again. The heroes took turns giving and taking blows. Overall it seemed like they had it handled, up until a certain point.

The alien grabbed a hold of Cory and flung him against a building. Then, of course in relation, Kara knocked it back several feet. Cory got back on his feet, shaking the bits of dust and rubble off him, and just as he got back into his fighting stance the alien picked a car up and hurled it at Kara as she was hurrying civilians off the streets.

“Watch out!” he called out.

Without even thinking, he flew at the car to catch it but ended up hitting it in a different direction towards a group of four civilians. It all happened so fast. Before Cory realized his mistake, it was too late and he along with the other civilians that were there froze as they stared at the horrible sight.

Kara looked at her brother, with shook and concern, but still having to deal with the issue a hand she had to go back to fighting the alien, only to see that Cory disappeared when she glanced back at him.

After that, Cory basically locked himself away in his apartment. Days turned into weeks of just lying in bed and letting his voicemail fill up, anything he could do to hide from the rest of the world.

Cory was on his couch, the news on in the background. Not that he was paying any attention to it, he was far too trapped in his own thoughts. Then, he heard the sound of keys jangle at the door.

“Jesus,” he heard Alex say. “When was the last time you cleaned?”

He lifted his head to look at her then lied back down.

She sighed, placing the take out she brought over down, and started to tidy up around the place. “You know, it would be nice if you could return one of Kara’s calls. She worried about you.”

“I don’t feel like talking to her,” he mumbled.

“Well it would help if you at least talked to someone.”

“I could talk to the police.”

“Hey, don’t say that.”

“Why not? I’m a murderer..”

Alex sighed once more and sat with him. She rested a hand on his leg, “Look, you’ve always had a good heart, what happened doesn’t change anything—”

“Look, Alex, I appreciate you checking up on me, but I really just wanna be alone right now.”

Alex said nothing else in protest of him, she knew there was nothing else much she could say to make him feel better. Instead she just nodded and got up to leave. “I got you something from that burger joint you like. Just make sure you eat, okay?”

. . .

Kara showed up at Cory’s door as soon as got off of work. It was driving her crazy that her own brother wasn’t talking to her at all, especially after seeing the look on his face when the accident happened, and then having to hear about it all around at CatCo. She tried her best to give him time and space, but then after hearing Alex tell her what kind of state he was in, she couldn’t handle it anymore.

“Cory, I know you’re in there, open the door.” she said after knocking for the third time. “Please don’t make me bust down the door.”

Soon enough she heard the turning of the lock and Cory emerged in a pair of sweatpants and a sweater that looked like he lived in them for days. “What do you want?” he said, walking away from the door right after he opened it.

“I want to know that my little brother— who has been ignoring my calls, might I add— is okay.”

“You don’t have to do that. Alex already checked up on me.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard. That’s why I’m here.”

“To do what?” he snapped, turning to her. “This isn’t like that time in my freshman where I crushed that guy’s hand and I was too scared to touch anybody for a month. You can’t just give a pep talk time.”

“Cory. It was an accident.” she said in that nurturing tone of hers.

“I killed people, Kara. That’s not just some accident!”

“It was a one time thing, you didn’t mean to. It’s not like it’s gonna happen again.”

“You’re right. It won’t happen again. Because Kryptoboy doesn’t exist anymore.”

Kara looked taken aback. “Wh-what do you mean?”

“Everybody hates me, a-and to be honest I never wanted any of this in the first place. The only reason why I became Kryptoboy was because you dragged me into it.”

“I thought you wanted to be Krytoboy..”

“I just wanted to be normal!” he cried. “Then you started talking and you said how this could be our chance to be Kryptonian again, but to be honest between all those years in the pod and on earth, I don’t even think I remember Krypton. I know you miss Krypton but you can’t expect me to feel the same way. Earth was supposed to be our chance to start over, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do for the past eleven years. I’m not Cor-el and I’m not Kryptoboy. I just wanna be Cory Danvers, okay? Cory Danvers is a good person, he’s nice, he helps people, h-he would never hurt anybody.” he choked on those last words as tears got caught in his throat.

Kara sighed and pulled him in for a hug where he broke down. She held him close as he cried into her shoulder, rubbing the back of his neck in a soothing motion. “I’m sorry.” After a moment, she pulled away and looked into his sad puffy eyes. “I think you should go visit Eliza for a bit.”

He sniffled and nodded. As much as he wanted to be alone before, he knew it was probably best to get out of National City and go home for a while. Plus, being in his old bed did seem nice right about now.

Cory gathered himself and together he and Kara went to go pack a suitcase before driving to Midvale the next day.

Tags: @eliotsbambimargo, @stewie-castle

#kara & cory #oc imagine #cory danvers imagine #kara danvers imagine #supergirl #angst #tw death #tw deppresion

22 notes · View notes

mittensmorgul · 5 years

Text

Today’s entire TNT loop in one post, because I’m tired and there’s only three episodes:

3.14, Long Distance Call. This is what happens when you mess with the phone company, dillweed!

I've written a bunch in the past about how this episode relates to communication and keeping secrets, which is still relevant:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/159234156395/314-lies-and-secrets-and-its-deans-turn-to

and

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/171381786235/not-meta-just-interesting-im-rewatching-314

But because the voice on the phone when Dean starts getting Calls From The Beyond (which aren't from the beyond but a manipulation by a creature who wants to lure Dean in to eat his soul) is John, providing words of comfort, encouragement, and instruction to Dean at a time where he feels like he's running out of time and options, Dean is led down a completely wrong path. "John" tells him he can get out of his deal and save himself from Hell by trapping a specific demon, but of course it's just the crocatta luring him to his death (but of course Dean figures that out before that can happen).

But Sam, meanwhile, THINKS he's told Dean what the monster actually is, but that information never reached Dean, leaving him confronting the crocatta by himself... RIP Stewie. Sam calls Dean and gets his voicemail (This is Herman Munster, leave a message), but his whole previous call with Dean wasn't even really a call with Dean...

SAM: What are you doing? CLARK: I'm killing your brother. Or maybe I'm killing another guy. We'll just have to see how it goes.

and most terrifying:

CLARK: Well once I made you two as hunters, it was easy. I found Dean's number, then your number, then your father's numbers. Then emails, voicemails, everything. You see, people think that stuff just gets erased, but it doesn't. You'd be surprised how much of yourself is just floating out there, waiting to be plucked. SAM: Dean's not going to fall for this. He's not going to kill that guy. CLARK: Then the guy kills him.

The crocatta was a monster who preyed on human communication, twisting words to his own benefit and manipulating people into believing what he needed to lure them to him. He had Dean convinced killing this innocent man would save him from Hell, but the other man was convinced that Dean was the man who'd killed his own daughter. It was all a distraction to keep Dean from learning what was really going on-- that Sam had effectively figured out what the monster was, and that it was the monster luring Sam to his lair, using Stewie as bait.

At the end of the story, everyone lost. Dean lost hope that they'd find a way to save him from Hell. Which drives Sam to pull a bit of a manipulation of his own...

in 3.15, Time Is On My Side.

This is Sam's last stand, his last hope to save Dean. Not by defeating the demon that holds his contract, but by gaming the system. His logic-- if Dean's can't die, he can't go to Hell. But the way Sam wants to make Dean immortal is... horrific at best. And something tells me the hellhounds wouldn't care if someone scienced their physical body into effective immortality, and would've collected Dean's soul anyway. But Sam needed to believe in something, as is his wont. When he loses hope, he loses it hard. Look at mid s13 for a reminder of that, specifically in an episode with a heavy thematic and tonal comparison to this one-- 13.11 Breakdown.

Meanwhile, Dean goes in a different direction, getting a lead on Bela and hoping to get the Colt back:

DEAN: You're not helping! You forget that if I welch on this deal, you die. Guess what, living forever is welching. SAM: Fine! Then, whatever the magic pill is, I'll take it too! DEAN: Oh, what is this? Sid and Nancy? No. It's just like Bobby's been saying. We kill the demon who owns the contract and this whole damn thing wipes clean. That's our best shot. SAM: Even if you had the Colt, Dean, who are you gonna shoot? We have no idea who holds the ticket. DEAN: Well, I'll shoot the hellhounds then before they slash me up. Now, you coming or not?

Sam decided... not. He stayed to try and figure out Benton's immortality formula. He does find it, but Dean doesn't want to live like that:

SAM: Dean, don't you want to live? DEAN: What he is isn't living. Look, this is simple. SAM: Simple? DEAN: To me it is, okay. Black or white; human, not human. (DEAN walks back to stand in front of DOC BENTON) See, what the Doc is is a freakin' monster. I can't do it. I would rather go to hell.

Well, heck, we know Dean doesn't really see anything as "black and white," and the real issue isn't "human or not human" anymore. But he does have a line he will not cross, and whatever Benton is is way too far across that line for Dean. And thank heck... Preserving life at all costs that way? At the cost of his own essential humanity? Yeah, that's horrific.

We meet Rufus, who eventually does provide Dean the lead to find Bela, but he also echoes Dean's attitude we've seen over and over again:

RUFUS: I know ain't no peashooter gonna save you. DEAN: What makes you so sure? RUFUS: Cause that's the job, kid. Even if you manage to scrape out of this one, there's just gonna be something else down the road. Folks like us...there ain't no happy ending. We all got it coming. DEAN: Well, ain't you a bucket of sunshine? RUFUS: I'm what you've got to look forward to if you survive. (Smirking and raising his glass again) But you won't.

Survive this round, just wait for the next one, because there's always a next one... Thanks, Rufus!

But of course Bela doesn't have the Colt anymore. Dean does learn that she sold her soul and her deal is about to come due. She's in the same boat he's been in all along...

DEAN: Is that why you stole the Colt, huh? Try to wiggle out of your deal, our gun for your soul? BELA: Yes. DEAN: But stealing the Colt wasn't quite enough, I'm guessing. BELA: They changed the deal. They wanted me to kill Sam. DEAN: Really! Wow, demons untrustworthy. Shocker.

Because no matter what, the demons were NEVER going to let Dean out of his deal. No matter how many demons they killed, no matter who they bargained with, no matter what, they needed him to die and go to Hell to fulfil their prophecy and break the first seal on the Apocalypse. And that's what s3 boiled down to in the end...

This was the long con that s4 would do to freaking perfection, but s3, with all it's structural deficiencies for having been 6 episodes shortened because of the writer's strike, manages the same...

So that brings us to 3.16, No Rest for the Wicked.

The one where they think they finally gained the upper hand on catching the Big Bad Demon who holds Dean's contract, and don't yet know the entire setup was a trap laid just for them. The fact the payoff on this information doesn't come until the end of s4, with other little hints along the way-- like Dean learning what Sam's been up to while he was in Hell, like learning about angels and the breaking seals of the apocalypse, like being given the runaround as heaven and hell both use Sam's desire to get revenge on Lilith for perceived wrongs against them and is willing to turn himself into a monster to achieve that end... when all along it was exactly what the angels and demons both wanted them to do...

S4 will become the template for Cosmic Manipulation of the Winchesters as part of the Grand Story of the Universe. But all the seeds for it were already planted in s3.

Well, except for Cas. He's the wild card, and isn't that the wildest thing ever?

I wonder how Chuck accounted for him? Bring on Team Free Will, breaking Chuck's story again and again until they'll finally force him to drop the curtain in 14.20...

ETA, because I always do this... I’ve written some about Ruby’s manipulation before, like in this post from May 2018, after the s13 finale aired:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/174230167715/since-your-anons-are-on-the-subject-there-is

SAM: And you decided to tell me this just now? RUBY: Um... demon. Manipulative's kinda in the job description. Fact is, is that you would have never considered it. Not until you were – SAM: Desperate enough?

and when Sam has doubts, and he’s so close to wanting to trust Ruby out of desperation?

DEAN: Don't you see a pattern here? Dad's deal, my deal, now this? I mean every time one of us is – is – is up the creek the other is begging to sell their soul. That's all this is, man. Ruby's just jerking your chain down the road. You know what it's paved with and you know where it's going.

And yep, that’s exactly it. The Winchester Family Sacrifice-Go-Round. All in the name of keeping Chuck entertained.

ETA FOR THE SECOND TIME: Lilith. Pretending to be a seriously twisted little girl, controlling this entire family for her own horrific idea of “fun.” Kinda similar to Chuck’s own MO, always playing a persona-- Chuck the trashy novel author, Chuck the prophet of the lord who doesn’t want to be, Chuck the super cute guy who was delightfully enamored by humanity enough to want to be human himself, at least for a little while... But all of it is part of his own incredibly long game, thinking he’s got the Winchesters exactly where he wants them, being on the scene to watch his plan play out, only for it to all go sideways.

ugh and yet another ETA: Dean, only when he is very close to death, a side effect of that is that he can literally see things he wasn’t able to before:

DEAN: I could see its face. Its real face under that one. SAM: So what, now you're seeing demons? DEAN: I've seen all kinds of things lately but... nothing like this. BOBBY: Actually it's not all that crazy. DEAN: How's it not that crazy? BOBBY: Well you've got, just over five hours to go? You're piercing the veil, Dean. You're glimpsing the B side. DEAN: A little less new age-y please. BOBBY: You're almost hell's bitch. So, you can see hell's other bitches.

What a strange way to finally see through the illusions to the truth, you know? Dean got all the way through Chuck’s endless parade of misery in s14-- losing hope against Michael only to lose hope for Jack, and himself-- to that final moment where he was able to glimpse the B side, as it were.

ugh again... this is what I get for posting stuff before the episode is over...

How close to killing an innocent little girl did Sam come here? While her own mother begged him to do it, because as far as they knew, the girl was still possessed. But Dean saw the truth, the demon was gone.

Sam’s ready to do whatever “Ruby” wants him to to save Dean, but it’s already too late. Ruby isn’t even Ruby anymore. Dean hadn’t noticed the switch until it was too late, again. Always too late. All part of the long manipulation.

#spn 3.14 #spn 3.15 #spn 3.16 #s14 hellatus rewatch #spiders georg of the tnt loop #it's spirals all the way down #that's what free will is #spn 4.22 #for the reference #spn 14.20

7 notes · View notes

sevenfists · 6 years

Note

s/g robots in disguise

And the-undoubted-queen asked for accidental love confession. So here’s some tragic hockeybot Geno. I interpreted these prompts kind of loosely, uhhh the heart wants what it wants?

(I think I’ll do maybe one more of these? Some of y’all sent me fantastic prompts that are too much for a little tumblr ficlet, so I won’t fill them now but maybe check back in six months.)

Geno was charging in the locker room when Sid got to the arena: slumped over at his stall, the flap open at the back of his neck, the long cord extending to the outlet near the door. His eyes were open and unseeing, fixed on a random point on the floor. Sid hated to see him like that, had always hated it, but it was worse now than it had been before. He didn’t need the reminder that Geno was a thing: an object. He knew.

By the time Sid had looked over his gear, the indicator light at Geno’s nape had turned from orange to green. This was Dana’s job, usually, but Sid knew what to do. There was no reason to go pry Dana out of the skate room.

He unplugged the cord from Geno’s neck and shut the flap, smoothing his fingers over the skin until the seams closed. Geno always felt hot when he had just finished charging, like a person running a high fever. Sid tugged up the hem of Geno’s shirt to expose his lower back and the activation button there, tucked beside his spine, where it was protected by his pants during a game. He pushed and held, and waited for the three beeps before he let go.

He stepped back. Geno blinked a few times, and then straightened from his slouch. His hands settled on his knees. He stared vacantly ahead of him, still booting up. Finally he blinked again and turned his head, looking around the room.

“You’re at the arena,” Sid told him. “It’s Thursday. We’re playing the Kings tonight. I just got here and I’m about to go tape my sticks.” It never took Geno long to reorient, but Sid didn’t see any reason to let him drift in confusion for even thirty seconds.

Geno nodded. “Thursday. Okay.” He nodded again. “Thanks, Sid.”

“No problem,” Sid said, and then forced himself to leave the room. Geno wasn’t his to care for any longer.

+ + +

Geno got into a fight with Williams early in the third. Sid didn’t see what started it, but by the time the whistle blew, Geno was on top of Williams on the ice, punching his head. Geno wasn’t much of a fighter; he hadn’t gotten in a single fight last season, and there had only been a handful in the years before that. But he was fighting now, and then he started glitching in the penalty box, the distinctive jerky hand to face motion that had the box attendant leaping to his feet and calling for a stoppage of play.

Stewie and the team’s bot tech were in the box with Geno for way longer than Sid would have liked, but Geno was upright when they emerged—sagging, but on his feet and skating between Stewie and Noah. The crowd clapped, the guys tapped their sticks against the boards, and Sid exhaled and sat down hard on the bench.

“The fuck’s wrong with Geno?” Kuni muttered to him, and Sid shook his head. He knew a fair amount about bot maintenance, but glitching wasn’t maintenance, it wasn’t common, and it meant that something was pretty wrong.

Geno didn’t come back to the bench, and he wasn’t in the locker room after the game. Sid talked to the press. Nobody asked him about Geno. They had shut out the Kings; it was a good game. Nobody even asked him about Geno’s fight.

When he was done, he went down the hall to the mech room. The door was closed, but when Sid tried the handle, it wasn’t locked. He let himself in.

Noah had Geno sprawled face-down on the exam table. The big panel of Geno’s back was hinged open, exposing the mess of wires. Geno’s feet twitched slightly, dangling over the end of the table.

Noah looked over at Sid and frowned. “You need something?”

“Who is it?” Geno asked, muffled. He was still powered up, then.

“It’s Sid,” Noah said. The league was pretty serious about bot rights. The door to the mech room stayed closed when they were being examined; they got to have their privacy. Noah was fiercely protective of Geno and Olli both, and he wouldn’t hesitate to tell Sid to fuck off if Geno didn’t want him there.

Geno didn’t respond for long enough that Sid’s heart sank. But then Geno grunted and said, “Sid is okay,” and Noah shrugged and went back to poking around in Geno’s back with his sensor, a slim metal rod like a knitting needle.

Sid pulled up a stool and sat at the head of the table. There was a cutout for Geno’s face, like a massage table. He couldn’t turn his head to look at Sid, but he reached out with one hand, and Sid brushed their fingertips together: hi, I’m here. It was the most they ever touched off the ice, these days.

“What happened?” he asked quietly.

“Don’t know,” Geno said. “You know, it’s fight, maybe I’m angry. But I fight before and no problems. But then—”

“Yeah,” Sid said.

He sat quietly with Geno while Noah prodded and muttered. At last Noah sighed and returned his sensor to its charging stand. “I’ve gotta run full diagnostics on you. I’ll set the door so nobody else can get in, okay?”

Geno didn’t say anything as Noah closed and sealed his back panel. When he sat up, he was frowning. “Nobody?”

“I mean, the fire department has override access if the place starts burning down,” Noah said. “But nobody else. I’ll boot you up first thing when I get here in the morning.”

“Okay,” Geno said begrudgingly. He was paranoid now about powering down overnight anywhere except his own house. Nobody blamed him, not after what had happened to him.

“Come on, let’s get you in the dock,” Noah said.

That was Sid’s cue to leave. “See you tomorrow, G,” he said, rising to his feet, and Geno gave him an absent wave.

Sid went home. There was a dock for Geno in his bedroom, but it hadn’t been used in months. Maybe it didn’t even work anymore.

+ + +

Geno was fine for a few games, and then they went on the road and he glitched out while they were playing the Wild, pretty horribly, twitching and spasming on the ice near the net. The arena went silent as Stewie and Noah rushed out. Geno looked and acted so human that it was easy to forget he wasn’t, and this was the real uncanny valley shit, watching him move in a way that no human could.

“That’s bad,” Olli said.

Sid glanced at him. “You know something?”

Olli shrugged. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t tell Sid. He and Geno had been thick as thieves before the Olympics, and it hadn’t taken them long to get close again afterward. Bot solidarity.

Geno couldn’t skate off, this time. He left the ice on a stretcher.

Somehow they won that game. Sid phoned it in with the press. Nobody asked him about Geno, but one of the local beats said, when they were wrapping up, “Really hope Geno’s going to be okay,” and everyone murmured agreement.

“He’s a tough guy,” Sid said, and what he meant was, Me, too.

He went to check on Geno when he was done. The Wild didn’t have any bots, and they didn’t have a designated mech room, so Geno was face-down on a table in the trainers’ room, getting his innards poked through while Stewie worked on Tanger’s hamstring.

Geno was powered down, limp and unresponsive. His arms were raised above his head and crossed at the wrists. Sid touched his shoulder, where Noah couldn’t see. “Is he, uh.”

“I’m working,” Noah said tightly, without looking away from Geno’s back.

“Okay,” Sid said.

Geno wasn’t on the bus back to the hotel that night, but he was on the flight to Winnipeg in the morning. He seemed fine. He played cards the way he always did. Sid could worry about him, but it had to be the worry of a captain for his alternate, and Sid couldn’t remember what that felt like. After more than six months, his feelings were as fresh and raw as they had been the day they all boarded the flight to Sochi.

+ + +

The game against the Jets was physical and wild. Even fucking Flower took a slashing penalty. They won in overtime, and the locker room was in giddy turmoil afterward. Geno was grinning and jumping around with Suttsy: dancing. Back to his new self.

The next day was a travel day, with a late morning flight. It was inevitable that they would go out. Sid didn’t care where they went as long as he could order a steak.

There was steak, and also shots. Sid sat next to Flower and watched Geno across the table, laughing with Olli, neither of them eating or drinking anything, but out with the team nonetheless, to celebrate.

Sid drank steadily. Flower’s frown deepened, and after Sid’s fifth shot, he said, “You’re going to regret that in the morning.”

“Probably,” Sid said.

“I know you’re worried,” Flower said, “but—”

“I don’t want to talk about this,” Sid said. He was riding a hard buzz. He knew he should stop, but he wasn’t going to.

“Not with me, no,” Flower said. “Maybe you should talk with him.”

Geno balled up a napkin and threw it down the table at Suttsy. It uncrumpled in mid-flight and landed on Desi’s plate. Sid said, “There’s nothing to talk about.”

Flower sighed. “Sid—”

“He doesn’t remember,” Sid said.

“Maybe he will, if you tell him,” Flower said. “You know. Like you forget about something until someone reminds you.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Sid said. “It’s gone.”

“Fine,” Flower said. “Okay. Keep making yourself miserable.”

“Glad you approve,” Sid said, and reached for another shot.

The Russian national team hadn’t wanted any conflicted loyalties, in Sochi. They had done a soft wipe: not a hard reset to Geno’s factory settings, but a wipe to his base personality. He came back from the Olympics as the guy he had been as a rookie: shy, volatile, unable to speak English. He still liked animals and McDonald’s, but he had forgotten the team and everything that had happened to him since he came to the NHL.

The Penguins had a personality backup, of course. But backups were expensive, time-consuming, and infrequent. Geno’s was a year out of date, and there was stuff he would never get back. The brutal playoffs sweep by the Bruins. The birth of Max’s daughter. His entire relationship with Sid.

“They murder me,” Geno had said, cold with fury, and that was the clip that made the rounds on every news channel for a week, until the next scandal hit and people lost interest.

All Sid had left was a few pictures, and the unused dock in his bedroom. Otherwise he might have thought he invented the whole thing.

The night went on. Sid didn’t feel too drunk until he got up to hit the washroom, but his head spun profoundly as he stood at the urinal, and he knew he would regret everything. His chest hurt. He needed to leave.

“I gotta go,” he said to Flower, when he got back to the table.

“Good plan,” Flower said. “Hey! Geno!”

“No,” Sid said, but it was too late: Geno had looked over, and then he and Flower were talking, and Sid drained his water glass and waited for someone to tell him what to do. Everything was fuzzy. He wanted to lie down.

“Come on, Sid,” Geno said, there beside his chair, one hand on Sid’s shoulder, and Sid stood up and pulled his coat on with clumsy hands. It was cold outside: Manitoba in November.

They walked for a while. The hotel could have been two blocks away or twenty. Sid could walk mostly in a straight line. He didn’t know where he was going. It was good that Geno was there with him, to keep him from getting lost.

“You’re glitching,” he said.

Geno glanced at him. “Not right now.”

“You know what I mean,” Sid said. “I’m so fucking worried about you.”

“You drink too much,” Geno said.

“Yeah,” Sid said. “Oh, God. I really did.”

“You drink water, get in bed,” Geno said, and then the hotel was there, or at least Geno was steering him into a lobby, and then into an elevator. Sid slumped against the wall as Geno pushed a button. Sid didn’t remember which floor he was staying on. He didn’t know if he had a room key. Did he have his wallet? He patted his pockets a few times.

“Here,” Geno said. He reached into Sid’s coat pocket and extracted his wallet, and pulled out his key card. Geno had everything under control. He wasn’t drunk. He was a bot, and his memory was perfect, except for the things that had been erased from him.

Sid blindly followed Geno down the hall. Geno opened a door, and herded Sid inside. That was Sid’s bag on the end of the bed. This was Sid’s room.

“Get undress,” Geno said, and went into the washroom.

Sid fumbled out of his clothes. He left his underwear on, because he didn’t get naked with Geno anymore. He sat on the bed. Geno came out of the washroom with Sid’s water bottle, filled with nasty hotel tap water that Sid didn’t want to drink. Geno put the bottle in his hand, and Sid drank.

“Good,” Geno said.

“I drank too much,” Sid said.

“I know,” Geno said gently. “Sid, why you do this? It’s not like you.”

“I don’t know,” Sid said. “I don’t know. I still miss you. I’m sorry. I still love you. I tried to stop. I don’t know how.” He took another sip of water. His throat hurt. “I’m sorry.”

“Sid,” Geno said, and Sid glanced up. Geno had a weird look on his face. He was so handsome. The pain in Sid’s chest and his throat squeezed tight, merging together into something that felt shameful. He was going to embarrass himself. He probably already had.

“Sorry,” Sid said.

“You—love?” Geno said.

“When they wiped you,” Sid said. “You don’t remember me. Noah said—it would confuse you. So I tried not to—but I miss you. I’m so sorry.” He raised one hand to his face. His skin felt hot and tight.

“Sid,” Geno said. He moved in close and put his arms around Sid. He smelled the same. He was a little too warm to be human. Sid hadn’t been so close to him since before the Olympics. Sid leaned against him and closed his eyes.

“I know you don’t remember,” Sid said.

“Okay,” Geno said. “I stay here tonight. Okay? Wake you up, make you drink more water. Then you plug me in. We talk in morning.”

“You need your cord,” Sid said.

“Yes, I go get,” Geno said. “Tell Olli what I do. Then I come back.” He pulled away slightly and cupped Sid’s face in his hands. Sid was too drunk to interpret Geno’s expression, but it made him feel sick and scared and hopeful all at once.

“I didn’t mean to,” Sid said, and he didn’t even really know what he was talking about.

“It’s okay,” Geno said. His hands were still on Sid’s face. “You get in bed. I come back soon.”

“Okay,” Sid said. Geno pulled back the covers, and Sid swung his legs up onto the mattress and lay down. He tugged the blankets up around his shoulders. He was so tired. He was going to pass out right away.

“You sleep,” Geno said, and ducked down to brush a gentle, earth-shattering kiss against Sid’s cheek.

#theladyscribe #sevenfists replies for blacklisting purposes #replies #ficlet

137 notes · View notes

dariamalek · 6 years

Text

An Amateur Concept Analysis of Self Worth

Over the course of the past week, I have been posting things to my Snapchat about little things you can do; a guide if you will, for "letting it go."

In response to my last post, I have come to realize the concept of "letting it go" comes from lack of confidence. Self worth and confidence is the root to being able to forgive and let go of things in your life.

You must clean your own house before you clean someone else’s.

This quote might just come off as a manifestation of the famous quote being “you need to love yourself before you love someone else” however, there is a reason that this is phrased differently.

I like this response better because it tackles another issue other than the emotional concept of self worth but it also displays a physical concept that is very important to self worth: the idea of cleanliness.

In my journey of finding out who the better version of me is, I realized there is three concepts to cleanliness:

a cleansing of the body, health, food consumption, exercising the body

a cleansing of your surroundings and environment, your home, your office space, getting rid of clutter

a second form of the cleansing of your surroundings, meaning the people around you, removing toxic people, removing the need for drama

The first one is quite self explanatory, and should make sense quite simply. If you feed your body good things, it will return good things to you such as good skin and more energy throughout the day. Brain foods are super important, especially if you have a 8-6 job, it’ll keep you focused throughout the day. Drinking lots of water will keep your insides cleaner (gross), and also contributes lots to weight loss for those of you who are insecure about their body. Eating the right foods (antioxidants and water and blah blah) will help with spots on your skin and hydrating your body. This effect is the same with socialization: you do and give good, you receive good.

Cleaning your home or any space you spend in for a certain amount of time. It’s both a feeling of satisfaction (look I cleaned this whole house myself look how great it looks) and removing clutter from your space lessens your levels of frustration and actually relaxes your mind. The more freed space you have around you, the easier it is to think and to get rid of that feeling of “the walls closing in on you.” (literally.)

You need to understand the concept of the “past,” “present” and “future.”

Some relationships, whether its a friendship or a romance, can end. Most of them do-and I say this so I can come back to it in my last point-but in order to understand how we are able to do something else other than mope around the house, we need to grasp the concept of the PAST, PRESENT and the FUTURE.

In our high school English class, we are often taught to not mistake our tenses in writing. You cannot say: “I go to the store and I bought milk.” The reason why that is incorrect is because “bought” is a past tense verb while “go” is a present tense verb. If we put the past tense verb in a present tense sentence, it makes it incorrect. The proper term should be “buy” which creates the sentence: “I go to the store and buy milk,” making that whole sentence a present tense sentence; eliminating the past from our present sentence.

There is a reason why this rule is in place and it is SO much more than just being “grammatically correct,” even though your Deconstructing Shakespeare professor might say otherwise (if you get that joke give this post a like).

This relates to the idea that when you are speaking, or living, in the present-ANY FORM OF THE PAST SHOULD NOT EXIST. Why? Because it doesn’t make sense. If we want to think of it in a literary aspect, IF A PART OF THE PIECE DOES NOT MAKE SENSE TO THE READER, THE REST OF THE PIECE WILL NOT MAKE SENSE TO THE READER EITHER. And you know what happens when a reader does not understand a piece? THEY STOP READING.

This will also apply to the idea that if you are still dwelling on negative past experiences in your life, you will NOT be able to move on (hence the “not understanding the rest of the piece). You will be stuck on that one time in your past (just like you would read one part of the sentence over and over again to understand it) and eventually skim through it and continue reading but you will always come back to that one sentence since the rest of the piece did not make sense. You are ALWAYS going to come back to your past because you are not able to let it go.

What we need to understand is the PAST IS IN THE PAST, we cannot change the past. Unless you have a high tech, Stewie Griffin engineered time machine, there is no way that you can go back in time and change anything. What you need to change IS YOUR MINDSET. You shouldn't blank out EVERYTHING from your past. Maybe something in your past happened that made you realize “maybe I shouldn't get drunk and go home with someone I don’t know.” You need to differentiate between the things in your past you did, that you did not do again, and you were happy with not doing (things you learnt from) vs. the things you did that you didn’t learn from OR the things someone did to you that hurt you that you cannot change, but you're hurting yourself and driving yourself crazy over.

The need to change comes from self confidence and self respect.

Seek clarity, not answers.

When thinking about the past, there are certain different kinds of ways you can reflect on the past rather than just asking yourself: “what did I do wrong?”

There’s a difference between asking what happened, why it happened or how it happened vs. understanding the circumstances in which this certain thing in your past occurred.

Stop blaming yourself for your past. There is no point blaming yourself now, at least. Stop being irrational. Put your time and energy into accomplishing things that have a purpose.

The fact that you have been given this gift of life means you are good enough.

There is no reason for you to feel unconfident.

If it’s your physical image you need to understand that people are different. Everyone is different. People were born with different body types, eye colours, skin colours, hair textures-and there is a reason they were born that way and that is because, just like in your own life, there should be DIVERSITY. There should be CHANGE.

Your life should be full of excitement and distractions. Why do you think different parts of the world look different? Why do you think people travel the world to see DIFFERENT SCENERIES? Because people are relaxed and enlightened by change: both to themselves and to their surroundings. This also applies to change of routine (going to the gym in the morning instead of at night) or change of appearance (your hair, your style).

However self confidence is key in this situation, there is NOTHING in your life that you cannot fix.

If you are insecure about your weight, as I was myself, there is a way to change that. You can start with dieting, and move into working out at the gym, going for walks, being active etc. However, with changing something you are unhappy with comes the right mentality.

If you are going to change your body because “you want to be more attractive to others,” you might as well just stay the same because

YOU CANNOT PLEASE OTHER PEOPLE.

There will always be something flawed about your public image unless you go under the knife with scientific proof that eyes should be less that .5 centimetres from your brow bone and other factual bullshit beauty standards, you will not be perfect.

So rather than doing things for others, change your mentality and focus it on yourself. As much as I tried to be perfect for others, and have the perfect body for an audience, I was always constantly stuck on: “look how much weight I lost, why does nobody see this?”

They won't see it.

Unless you find a way to say: “wow I look great, I am proud of myself,” that’s all your going to think about.

Instead of bettering yourself for others, better yourself FOR YOURSELF. It’s in the damn word. YOURSELF.

Rather than saying: “I want to lose weight so others will see it,” say “I want to lose weight so I can be healthy, I can live longer, I can be more confident in myself.”

The only opinion that matters is your own.

With love,

daria xx

2 notes · View notes

all-the-effects · 4 years

Text

The Most Excruciating ‘Succession’ Dinner Scenes, Ranked by Distress

8. Mom’s home cooking, Season 2, Episode 7, “Return”

Facing a possible shareholder rebellion, patriarch Logan (Brian Cox) dispatches Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv (Sarah Snook) to England to convince their mother — and major shareholder of Waystar Royco — Caroline (Harriet Walker) not to side with opponents Stewy Hosseini (Arian Moayed) and Sandy Furness (Larry Pine), who are waging a proxy war against Logan. The two youngest Roys dutifully cross the Atlantic to visit their mother, who we last saw asking guests at Shiv’s and Tom’s wedding how long they predicted the marriage would last.

Food: Instead of a 48-ounce T-bone steak with truffle fries, Caroline dishes up that classic combination of pigeon, potatoes, and wine. ★☆☆☆

Ambiance: Honestly, as transparently transactional as this exchange is, it’s pretty par for the course for this family, so there’s a comforting kind of casualness to the meal. Almost homey, one could say. Love to be raised in a household where love and affection are withheld until they can be divvied out in thimblefuls as paltry rewards or bribes! ★★☆☆

Company: Caroline, in case it wasn’t clear from her behavior at Shiv’s wedding, does not seem like a particularly caring mom or decent human being. No wonder she and Logan were once a match, and no wonder they later got divorced. ★★☆☆

Power plays and money moves: Mother and children bat around the offer of tens of millions of dollars so casually that their conversation could incite class warfare. Ultimately, Caroline comes out on top, offering to accept either Logan’s summer palace in the Hamptons (a place that she loathes, but that she knows Logan loves), or $20 million and the Roy children for Christmas. Not only is this a win-win for her, but she gets the added pleasure of callously treating her children like bargaining chips that they all know Logan will discard in favor of the Hamptons estate. “I think we have to hear which he’d prefer,” she says. “Let’s make him choose.” Holy shit, that is a barbed maneuver! ★★★☆

7. Cold butter, Season 1, Episode 4, “Sad Sack Wasp Trap”

The Roys’ annual charity gala is a black-tie affair attended by New York’s wealthiest. This year, it’s overseen by Connor (Alan Ruck), the eldest Roy child — and a half-brother to Kendall, Shiv, and Roman — who otherwise keeps himself busy with voluntary unemployment, weird politics, and a girlfriend who may be a sex worker he once hired. The event, a clashing of money, performative philanthropy, and misunderstandings, sets off a chain of events that shapes the rest of the season.

Food: Some of the food served includes lasagna, salad, and bread with butter too cold to spread. “The butter’s all fucked! You fuckwads, there’s dinner rolls out there ripping as we speak!” Connor screams at the kitchen staff before attempting to fire them all en masse, demonstrating that all it takes is a hint of supervisory power — and some pressure from dear dad — to turn someone into even more of an asshole. ★☆☆☆

Ambiance: Ostensibly classy. Dully fancy. You know. ★★☆☆

Company: Just a big roomful of rich people! Choose your players! ★★☆☆

Power plays and money moves: Due to a mix up with teleprompter and the underhanded tattletale instincts of snitch Connor, Logan takes this public event as an opportunity to fuck over his heir apparent Kendall. “I see you,” Logan hisses privately to his son after announcing in a speech that he would not be retiring. “I spied you fucking out, son, don’t ever do that to me again.” This particular battle may have been waged just in Logan’s head, but it kicks off a struggle between father and son that impacts the entire arc of Succession. ★★★★

6. Tom displays character growth, Season 2, Episode 10, “This Is Not for Tears”

Tom (Matthew Macfayden) — on the heels of a potentially marriage-ending talk on the beach with Shiv, prompted by her not defending him against a possible ouster — marches right up to Logan for what is quite possibly one of the most exciting minute-long encounters in television history.

Food: Chicken so good, Tom just had to steal a bite. ★★☆☆

Ambiance: On the one hand, they’re aboard a mega-yacht on the beautiful Mediterranean. On the other, the question of who will be deemed the “blood sacrifice” forced to take the fall for Waystar Royco’s crimes looms over them like a grim reaper. A mixed bag, one could say. ★★☆☆

Company: Tom and Logan, one of the least naturally occurring pairings in the series, have an established dynamic: Tom kowtows, Logan barely tolerates. While that would normally be a gut-roiling duo to be in the company of, the change in their dynamic in this scene kind of makes you want to stick around. ★★☆☆

Power plays and money moves: Everyone loves an underdog story, and in the world of Succession, Minnesota-raised Tom is one of the underdoggiest of them all. Fueled by a reckless surge of desperate rage, he confronts his CEO and father-in-law by grabbing a piece of chicken from Logan’s plate, taking a big bite, and throwing the breast back onto the plate. Tom’s muffled “Thank you for the chicken,” delivered through a mouthful of meat to a shocked Logan, is somehow the most dignified he has ever appeared. We also get what’s maybe the most Logan Roy line of all time, when he wonders aloud to Shiv what Tom has planned next, “Stick his cock into my potato salad?” ★★★★

5. Pizza in the Hamptons, Season 2, Episode 1, “The Summer Palace”

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the Roys have a mansion known as the “summer palace” in the Hamptons (which, in real life, was an estate built for Henry Ford’s grandson in the 1960s). Confronted with the threat of the “bear hug” hostile buyout that Kendall, Stewy, and Sandy initiated at the end of the first season, Logan decides to hold court at the summer palace in an attempt to seek clarity and a new successor.

Food: Enraged and disgusted by rotting, raccoon carcasses that have been stuck in the chimney long enough to invite maggots, Logan yells at his house staff to get rid of the lobster and shrimp they had prepared and to order pizza. What must be hundreds of dollars worth of seafood is unceremoniously dumped in the trash outside. (The pizza, to be fair, looks very appetizing.) ★★★★

Ambiance: Reminder that Logan and the staff have just unearthed rotting, maggot-infested raccoon carcasses in the chimney. It’s not a sexy environment. ★☆☆☆

Company: After a break, the gang is back together again! ★★☆☆

Power plays and money moves: To stick or sell: that is the question Logan is mulling over. Too bad no one dares speak their mind freely; Shiv even laughs at that invitation. A cowed, sycophantic court of an authoritarian’s own making — what a neat foreshadowing of dinner scenes to come! ★★★☆

4. How to eat like you have money, Season 1, Episode 6, “Which Side Are You On?”

By sheer, bumbling force of will and the power of his bloodline, newcomer Greg (Nicholas Braun) — the grandson of Logan’s brother — finds himself on the periphery of the Roys’ inner circle. Tom, recognizing another outsider (who is also the one family member he outranks and can therefore bully), quickly takes Cousin Greg under his wing and to a nice tasting-menu restaurant after they commit some casual white collar crimes. While the whole episode is nothing but a series of strategic dinners, this meal stands out, not least because it gives us the enduring image of these two idiots sitting in a trendy restaurant, heads shrouded in napkins.

Food: Monkfish and ortolan, a delicate songbird deep-fried and eaten whole with a napkin over one’s head because it’s so controversial — and, in some places, illegal — to eat. “That’s so good,” Tom sighs, while Greg, choking on the small bones and brain of the bird, comments: “It’s a rather … unique flavor.” Bet you anything he was thinking about how much he’d rather be eating California Pizza Kitchen’s Cajun chicken linguini. ★★☆☆

Ambiance: Chic surroundings befitting of one of the “most exclusive pop-ups of the city,” in Tom’s words. ★★★☆

Company: Of all the messed-up relationships on Succession, Greg and Tom’s remains one of the strangest — and yet, oddly, the most touching. “We have a bond,” Tom tells Greg during dinner (reminder: they just did crimes together!) “I was an outsider once … It was hard, and you create this kind of protective shell, but underneath we’re all just little nudie turtles.” Don’t you mean ... inside every Gregg is a vulnerable Tomlette waiting to be cracked free? ★★★☆

Power plays and money moves: What Tom wants to teach Greg (apart from how to do crimes), is how to live like a rich person, and this dinner is a foundational lesson. “Here’s the thing about being rich: it’s fucking great. It’s like being a superhero, only better. You get to do what you want, the authorities can’t really touch you, you get to wear a costume, but it’s designed by Armani, and it doesn’t make you look like a prick,” says the guy who comes off as a prick 97 percent of the time. ★★☆☆

3. Dinner with the Pierces, Season 2, Episode 5, “Tern Haven”

On a mission to woo the Pierces, the family that owns a rival media group known for its dedication to chasing the truth and winning Pulitzers (the Succession-verse Sulzbergers to the Roys’ Murdochs?), the Roy clan helicopter out to the Pierces’ WASP-y estate for a weekend of smarming and charming. Dinner, a feast made by a staff of at least three is served with a side of awkward small talk (Roman’s girlfriend Tabitha: “We’re not planning to have a baby because that would require us having sex.”) and the implicit sense of purpose driving the entire visit. The Roys want to acquire the Pierces’ PGM, and the Pierces want the billions that the Roys are offering, but neither side wants to come off as too desperate.

Food: Roast beef, soup, rolls, salad, potatoes, haricots verts, spinach (or, as Tom likes to call it, “king of edible leaves, His Majesty the spinach”). Nothing too thrilling, but solid and traditional, just like the Pierces. ★★★☆

Ambiance: Take the strained civility of a Thanksgiving dinner and gradually turn the dial up until you hit the exact moment that Shiv destroys any remaining chance that she will be named Logan’s successor. “Oh for fucks sake, Dad, just tell them it’s going to be me,” she says in response to Nan’s inquiry and Logan’s hedging. Silence, almost echoing in the cavernous dining room. Stricken faces around the table. Logan, jaw clenched, barely concealing his fury. Try enjoying your roast in that icy tension. ★☆☆☆

Company: It’s hard to imagine a family more insufferable than the Roys, and yet the Pierces, with their smug sense of propriety and ritual of reciting Shakespeare instead of saying grace, are worthy rivals, indeed. ★★☆☆

Power plays and money moves: Well, it’s official: Shiv “fucked it,” as the youngest Roy tells Tom after the nightmare meal. ★★★★

2. Boar on the floor, Season 2, Episode 3, “Hunting”

It’s difficult to describe the disturbing, magnetic, can’t-look-away trainwreck of a masterpiece that is “boar on the floor.” You see, Waystar Royco executives fly to a Hungary hunting lodge for a corporate retreat. After a vigorous day of killing stuff, they retire for dinner, only to find themselves trapped in an ominous-looking banquet hall with Logan Roy, who is out for blood. You know what, just watch it:

Food: Sausage presumably made from the very boars these white-collar office ninnies slew during their literal hunt. Level of deliciousness unknown; the victims of the figurative hunt are too busy debasing themselves to comment, “Yummy!” ★★★☆

Ambiance: BOAR ON THE FLOOR! BOAR ON THE FLOOR! BOAR ON THE FLOOR! ★☆☆☆

Company: If the thought of being stuck on an overnight, overseas retreat with your coworkers sounds hellish, just imagine a paranoid and furious Logan Roy being one of those colleagues. ★☆☆☆

Power plays and money moves: There is no bigger display of dick-swinging power. ★★★★★★★★★★

1. Breakfast with a death sentence, Season 2, Episode 10, “This Is Not for Tears”

After years of covering up heinous acts like sexual harassment and coercion, Waystar Royco must finally pay for (some of) its crimes by sacrificing a “skull,” a.k.a. a member of senior management whose scapegoating will be enough to satisfy the shareholders and the American public. To decide who that skull will be, Logan gathers his loyal servants aboard an obscenely decked-out yacht for a breakfast discussion of which person should be hypothetically thrown off the ship to stop it from sinking. Logan, who knows that the shareholders think he should step down, opens the discussion with the martyrizing statement, “I think the obvious choice is me.” As undoubtedly planned by Logan, the group immediately begins protesting — and the circle jerk of betrayal begins.

Food: A decent-enough-looking array of breakfast foods like croissants and smoothies, but who can muster up an appetite when there are colleagues to throw under the bus? ★★☆☆

Ambiance: A gorgeous backdrop of sunshine, azure waters, and warm sunshine, but who can fully decompress when there are colleagues to throw under the bus? ★★☆☆

Company: Members of the work family and the actual family, such as Gerri (“daughters first class on the company coin”), Karl (“I just went for the sports massage, I had no idea it was that kind of establishment”; also, “sausage thief”), Roman (“widely known as a horrible person”), Greg (“Greg sprinkles are a fantastic garnish to anyone seated at this table”), and Shiv and Tom (“beauty and the beast”), but who can enjoy their kinship when there are colleagues to throw under the bus? ★☆☆☆

Power plays and money moves: In case it wasn’t obvious, this meal is all about throwing colleagues under the bus.

But in direct contrast with the dark-lit, primeval chaos of “boar on the floor,” this power breakfast, eaten in broad daylight on a fancy boat, is strategically, agonizingly restrained. Siblings and coworkers artfully deflect blame and offer each other up for slaughter under the cover of this all being a hypothetical thought experiment, stripped of emotions. In Kendall’s words: “I’m saying this but I don’t believe it, I’m just saying it because this is the time we’re all saying things.” The bullshitting is truly masterful, and, trapped by the inflated score I gave “boar on the floor,” I must hereby assign the same star rating here: ★★★★★★★★★★

full article: https://www.eater.com/2019/10/11/20908746/succession-hbo-best-dinner-lunch-meal-scenes-ranked

#they skipped the dinner scene where tom tells shiv to shut up #maybe less distress and more tension #succession hbo #shiv roy #baby #roman roy #gremlin #kendall roy #hes really going thought it jc #you can see him detoriorating by every meal

1 note · View note